Kanowna Island, South East

Wall Dive | Boat access

Depth: 5 m (16 ft) to 55 m (180 ft)

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond.

Kanowna Island, South East is an interesting dive site at the south-east tip of Kanowna Island facing south-east out into the often wild seas of Bass Strait. It's located within the Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park and is a very rewarding boat dive site for adventurous divers.

Kanowna Island is part of the Anser Group of islands at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, Australia. It's an active, protected Australian Fur Seal colony. There are so many playful, curious seals that diving with them becomes an exciting and thrilling experience as they speed past and play with you.

Kanowna Island is named after the SS Kanowna, once a hospital ship for wounded soldiers from Gallipoli, which sank off Wilsons Promontory after striking nearby Skull Rock in 1929.

Diving Kanowna Island, South East

Kanowna Island, South East is a very remote dive site location, only accessible with a dive boat. Underwater the wall plunges steeply to the bottom at 55 metres, with plenty of boulders, caves and swim throughs to explore. Playful Australian Fur Seals often come to see divers here.

The spectacular walls of Kanowna Island, South East are current swept with prolific fish and invertebrate life including the usual kelp and soft corals. It drops off steeply, and is well worth a dive on the rare days conditions allow.

Motorised and non-motorised vessels including sea kayaks are prohibited from within 200 metres of Kanowna Island during the breeding season from November to January (inclusive), and within 50 metres of the island at other times of the year.

Scuba divers diving from boats anchored outside the seasonal exclusion zones around Kanowna Island may approach closer to these islands provided that they are underwater and observe any other restrictions applying to approaching marine mammals.

See also the nearby Kanowna Island, Seal School dive site.

Ideal Conditions: Kanowna Island, South East is best dived with calm seas, no swell and no wind. Light offshore westerly to northerly winds may be acceptable. Because of the depths that can be reached here, plus the sometimes strong currents, Kanowna Island, South East is best dived at slack water. See WillyWeather (Kanowna Island) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Bass Strait Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any shore or boat dive in Bass Strait on Victoria's coastline. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-in-bass-strait before diving or snorkelling this site.

Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park

This site lies in Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park, Victoria's largest marine sanctuary. There is a huge diversity of marine life within the waters at the Prom. Brilliantly coloured fish are present such as the Red Velvetfish, Eastern Blue Groper and Wrasse as well as Leafy Seadragons and schools of Barber Perch. Intertidal molluscs such as limpets and snails, as well as anemones, brittlestars and seastars, are also common within the waters.

Divers will experience fascinating sponge gardens which consist of a techni-coloured assemblage of sponges, sea tulips, sea whips, lace corals and seafans. Octopus emerge at night whilst sharks and rays roam the sandy areas.

The offshore islands support many colonies of fur seals and oceanic birds such as Little Penguins, Fairy Prions, Silver Gulls and Pacific Gulls.

You are not permitted to carry a spear gun while snorkelling or scuba diving in Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park.

Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes parts of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-west, down to Wilson's Promontory in the south-east, including the Mornington Peninsula, French Island and Phillip Island, plus Western Port. We wish to acknowledge the Boon Wurrung as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.

Kanowna Island, South East Location Map

Latitude: 39° 9.459′ S (39.157644° S / 39° 9′ 27.52″ S)
Longitude: 146° 18.938′ E (146.315635° E / 146° 18′ 56.29″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2022-04-21 15:47:56 GMT, Last updated: 2022-04-22 16:27:00 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Kanowna Island, Seal Colony, 420 m, bearing 330°, NNW
Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park.
Kanowna Island, Bass Strait.
Depth: 5 to 55 m.

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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.